PBS's signature performing-arts series showcases dance, drama, comedy and music ranging from orchestral and operatic to Broadway and the blues. The Lanford Wilson drama `The Rimers of Eldritch' was its first presentation and `Brideshead Revisited' was perh (more…)PBS's signature performing-arts series showcases dance, drama, comedy and music ranging from orchestral and operatic to Broadway and the blues. The Lanford Wilson drama `The Rimers of Eldritch' was its first presentation and `Brideshead Revisited' was perhaps its most famous. There have been more than 600 `Great Performances' all told. Some might have been only `reasonable performances' (as Robin Williams once quipped), but many others were distinguished, among them some 50 Emmy nominees.

Season 32, Episode 9 Leonard Bernstein's 'Candide' with the New York Philharmonic

First Aired: January 12, 2005

“Leonard Bernstein's Candide.” Kristin Chenoweth and Patti LuPone costar as Cunegonde and the Old Lady, opposite opera's Paul Groves (in the title role) and Thomas Allen (Dr. Pangloss/Voltaire/ Narrator) in the 1956 operetta, based on Voltaire's novella about the worldly wanderings of an 18th-century baron's bastard nephew. Songs include “Glitter and Be Gay.” Marin Alsop conducts the New York Philharmonic. Lonny Price directs. Taped at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in May 2004.